Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
If you watched Tuesday’s ABC debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, you saw that the moderators were doing everything they could to help Harris.
A recent fluff piece on ABC’s Lindsey Davis in the LA Times not only proves this to be fact, but she’s bragging about their behind-the-scenes plan to ensure Trump was not able to end Harris’s campaign the same way he did President Joe Biden’s at the CNN debate in June.
I said the reason for how the moderators behaved in the ABC debate was simply because they were not going to let happen to Kamala Harris, what happened to Joe Biden and here she is admitting ithttps://t.co/8uwshNkQl7 pic.twitter.com/x48TIQrz18
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 12, 2024
“In an era in which misinformation spreads fast and furious, Davis’ real-time fact check cut through the proceedings like a sharp blade,” the LA Times wrote. “Davis, wearing pink glasses while speaking to The Times over breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Philadelphia, said the decision to attempt to correct the candidates was in response to the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and President Biden, whose poor performance led to his exit from the race.”
The outlet added that in the weeks leading up to the debate, everyone involved at ABC played out “various scenarios” in table read-like sessions to ensure their ability to “fact check” in real time to avoid a redo of Trump’s debate against Biden. (RELATED: ROOKE: Harris Couldn’t Hide Major Blow Trump Landed During Biased Debate)
The real losers were ABC and its two partisan moderators, Muir and Davis. They sought to warp a debate, disgraced their network, and offered a good reminder why such media “moderators” should never be allowed anywhere near presidential debates. https://t.co/2nHe16lcL0
— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) September 12, 2024
“People were concerned that statements were allowed to just hang and not [be] disputed by the candidate Biden, at the time, or the moderators,” Davis told the LA Times.
The fix was in before the debate even began. In true regime media fashion, instead of learning from their mistakes in the past, their hubris pushed them to “fact check” Trump at every turn while leaving Harris to spread debunked falsehoods without even the slightest correction.
The New Yorker and the Atlantic both said that Trump was wrong to claim that Harris supported “transgender operations for illegal aliens in prison.” Atlantic changed their reporting after we at @Check_Your_Fact reached out but did not issue a correction. https://t.co/IobzchPdCm pic.twitter.com/y5aO4SylBz
— Elias Atienza (@AtienzaElias) September 12, 2024
Her co-host, David Muir, spent most of the time talking, leaving Davis mainly in the background of the debate. Still, that didn’t stop the LA Times from heralding her ability to block Trump.
Not only did the moderators create a scenario where Trump effectively debated three people at once, but their supposed disputes about Trump’s statements were incorrect.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said to Trump after his comments about Democrats’ support of late-term abortion and a statement made by former Democrat Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. Harris’s running-mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, signed a bill into law in 2023 that removed a requirement for abortion clinics to report the number of babies born alive after botched abortions and no longer expects medical professionals to give life-saving care to a baby born alive after an attempted abortion.
During 2015-2022, before the reporting requirement ended, 24 babies were born alive and subsequently died after abortion procedures in the state.
This is correct- I have written about the heinous law in @GovTimWalz‘ MN that does not require every measure possible to keep infants born in late-term abortions alive. Eight babies have died under Walz’ termhttps://t.co/28fOag7Vwi
— Liz Peek (@lizpeek) September 11, 2024
Late-term abortions are offered in nine states and DC where there are no gestational limits to abortion access, according to Check-Your-Fact.
WOW — Linsey Davis fact-checks Trump awful lies about abortion. Kamala hammers the point home that Trump is a liar. pic.twitter.com/5thDmNYmM0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2024
Last night during the debate, @ABC said that late-term abortions don’t happen. Obviously, abortion extremist @KamalaHarris got on board with that lie.
Literally just call a late-term abortion facility to fact-check that false… like I did. pic.twitter.com/XtsuaVfgh9
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) September 11, 2024
Pro-life activists shared multiple videos of recorded phone calls with supposed abortion clinics asking about obtaining an abortion in the third trimester (34 weeks). The assistant for the clinic supposedly claimed that there would be no issue receiving an abortion and went as far as explaining the gruesome process and ensuring that there was a doctor on staff that is well-versed in administering late-term abortions.
.@ABC lied & said late-term abortions don’t exist.
Here is another video that everybody needs to watch of one of our @StudentsforLife staff members calling an abortion vendor PROVING that late-term abortions are real.
This is what @kamalaharris supports. pic.twitter.com/GY0zFLy8RO
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) September 11, 2024
Harris knew she’d have the advantage when the network hosting the debate was run by Dana Walden, one of her closest friends.
Walden, a top Disney executive (Disney owns ABC), met Harris in 1994, and their husbands, Matt Walden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff have been friends since the 1980s, according to a piece by The New York Times about the apparent conflict of interest in ABC hosting the debate.
Not only have they been friends for decades, but the Waldens have also donated money to Harris’s political campaigns for years, the outlet reported. Harris credits Dana Walden with playing a role in introducing her to her now-husband, Emhoff.
(This is why networks should not host the debate – should go back to Commission of Presidential Debates; worked for 30+ years) Atop ABC, a Personal Connection to Kamala Harris – The New York Times https://t.co/AiauGBQ3jm
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) August 12, 2024
Davis was the perfect pawn for this scheme as she and Harris were members of the same sorority: Alpha Kappa Alpha. Davis became a member at the University of Virginia and Harris at Howard University. (RELATED: One Red State Senate Seat Could Flip The Balance Of Power In DC)
The point of the ABC debate was not to allow Trump to gain any advantage over Harris’s campaign while simultaneously allowing her to dodge the issues most important to American voters, like the economy and illegal immigration. Still, it didn’t work. Voters were left more confused than ever about Harris’s economic plan for the country, which gave Trump a polling bump regarding his ability to fix the country’s failing economy.